Mary Louisa Acheson : Short Biography

Mary Louisa Acheson wearing a traditional clothing of a countrywoman of Schleitheim / Switzerland posing with a fork (age ca 16)

Mary Louisa Acheson lost in the year 1907 both of her parents. As an 8 year old she came as an orphan together with her four sisters to her widowed grandmother Anne Kennedy nee Hughes to live in Woodstown, Annestown, Co. Waterford. Five years later Mary Louisa Acheson was brought at the age of 13 together with her elder sister Annie Isabella to Schleitheim / Switzerland. There the two sisters lived in the pastors house. The relationship to Switzerland is explained through familiar connections. The girls eldest aunt Mary (Polly) Jaeggi nee Kennedy was married to Hermann Jaeggi, the brother of the pastors mother. The girls went to school in Schleitheim and learned German and afterwards to a school to learn French and housekeeping, what was common for young women at that time. At the age of 22 Mary Louisa married a local man, Samuel Wanner. Two years later their daughter Mary Maud Wanner was born. Already then Mary Louisa Acheson had a week health. 1928 she dies of tuberculosis when her child was only 5 years old. Three sisters of her as well died of tuberculosis in a young age.